After a few rain outs and a lot of preparation from track owner Kevin Williams to try and get close to a hundred race cars into 80 slabs, it was almost time to start racing.

The front gates opened and the fans came to watch one of the only tracks that had racing due to Daytona weekend. It was Mid Season Championship night were several drivers from the regular classes were awarded big trophy’s for the night before the track closes for the 2month summer break.

With ten classes to be run, it was a features only night and all classes were lined up by a four week average except the super late models that qualified for position.

First up was the rookie trucks that saw a great battle for position by the 00 of Corey Bigley of Naples and Chad Chastain from Alva. Bigley led the first half until Chastain made the move for the lead and led the last half. It would be Chad Chastain to win the feature and the Mid Season title and Corey Bigley second and Justin Bond third.

Eight Cowboy Cadillacs showed up to do battle and after twenty laps of paint swapping, bumper to bumper and side by side racing it was John Pummell Jr that crossed the line first. Pummell bought the winning truck from Vandervender who bought the truck from Dellea and the truck lived up to it’s reputation by cruising Pummell to his first win in the class. Second was the twenty six of Mike True and third would be James Wright. Stuart Vandervender won the mid season championship title.

Pro Trucks had the two girls in the class,Kelli Burns and Whitney Poole running neck in neck for the title as there were only 3 points difference. Dylan Bigley jumped out to the early lead and led half way till the first caution came out on lap twelve were some contact was made between the top three in points and caused the 00 of Poole to pit with a flat tire. Travis Gossard who is sitting third in points restart outside Bigley and took over the lead to go onto win the race while the girls were battling their way to the front for that championship title. Poole restarting from the rear did some digging and as she made it up to second with five to go and challenged Gossard for the lead. Three laps to go Sam Scott from Naples holding on to the third spot while burns had her site on Poole who was in second and making it even up in points. Burns spun and Scott had to pit with a flat tire and when the checkers came out it was Travis Gossard first, Whitney Poole second and Burns passed Bigley on the last laps for third to win the Mid Season Title by two points over Poole.

Legend were up next and it was Becca Manopoli who dominated the first half of the race being chased by Darin Coker in the 00 machine. Cooker went on to win while Monopoli came in second and Brady Marshall was third.

Twenty Five super late models came out for race number five of the Goodyear 12 pack series and what a field of driver to compete for 100 laps. Fast qualifier was Patrick Starpoli and the only car to break into the fourteens but would start inside second row while Mike Smith started on the pole. Smith would run start to finish as the leader for the 100 laps as Starpoli ran second with some strong competition on his back bumper. Billy Bigley jr was picking them off one by one as Bigley knows how to work the outside groove and was up into second and trying to chase down Smith while Starpoli was in third with Wayne Anderson on his bumper. Lap 40 was a rough one as Anderson got called for spinning Starpoli and sent to the rear, and points lead Richie Anderson off the pace pulled into the infield. Half way mark so much to watch all around the track, some contact between Daryl Shellnut and Wayne Anderson ,lap 62 something wrong with the 28 of Bigley giving second back over to Starpoli. So much action all over the track, lap after lap and everyone fighting for position when the checkers flew it was Mike Smith that crused to the finish line with Patrick Starpoli second, Joe Winchell third and a very good run for young Dylan Bigley of Naples for fourth and T.J Duke was fifth.

Late model Sportsman title was up for grabs as Brandon Morris and Aaron Williamson was tied going into to nights feature and both cars starting in the rear. John Garrett pulled out to an early lead till James Dubose took over the lead on lap six. Dubose did his best to hold off a hard charging Morris who was up to second and made his way into first on lap fifteen. Williamson didn’t have such and easy job trying to get by the 09 of Donnie Ollie Jr who had a fast car till some contact from the 13 had to do some great driving to keep his car under control and not wrecking but sent Ollie back a few spots. At the checkers it was Morris who held on for first place over second place Williamson and James Dubose was third. Brandon Morris would win the Mid Season Title by one point over Aaron Williamson.

Street stock class was missing the points leader Bobby Fischer as he was called away to help with the fires in California and with Ryan Pancoast a no show it was an automatic win of the Mid Season Champ title to Bobby Fishcer as his dad David picked up his trophy. Richard Nelson of Port Charlotte led start to finish in the Street Stock feature with Shane Leonard second and Blaine Baer third.

Open Wheels saw the 46 of Doug Moff out to a large early lead while Steve Aronld was in second. With Moff about 2 cars lengths ahead of Arnold the five to go was shown and Arnold started to close in, white flag had Arnold close to Moff, The checkers came out and it was Moff first, Arnold second and Roger Blevins third.

Pro 4 cars came out and Ryan Collver broke out and ran all but 1 lap in first, holding off Paul Richards Jr, who finished second and Jessica Ostrovikis was third.

Road Warriors was the last race of the night that saw Phil Ellis start on the pole and dominate the entire race with Jeremy Daring in second being chased by Chris Loney who was in third. From second on back it was good hard racing while Ellis was out front by himself. A caution had to be thrown with five laps to go as one one the fans had to have medical assistance from the track safety team. Cars back on and lined back up was Ellis thinking of the last race were he had to settle for second because of a late caution . Ellis went on to win the feature with Derrick Horton second and Cody Allen third. Ellis was planning a winning burn out all week that he broke an Axel on the front stretch during his celebrations. Jason Miller would win the Mid Season Champ title.

The speedway will be closed for summer break of July and Aug and open back up in September, so the the web site www.puntagordaspeedway.com and sign up for our mailing list to stay up to date with all the current information. Have a safe summer.

 

Punta Gorda Speedway Results 7-7-2012

 

Rookie Trucks

1. 36 Chad Chastain **MID SEASON CHAMP**

2. 00 Corey Bigley

3. 32 Justin Bond

4. 47 Tyler Gossard. D.N.S.

 

Cowboy Cadillacs

1.86 John Pummel Jr.

2. 26 Mike True

3. 63 James Wright

4. 88 Brad Wegert

5. B48 Mike Bialecki

6. 33 Jesse Wilcox

7. 99 Stuart Vandevender **MID SEASON CHAMP**

8. 86M Rick Mills

 

Pro Trucks

1. 47 Travis Gossard

2. 00 Whitney Poole

3. 4 Kelli Burns **MID SEASON CHAMP**

4. 32 Dylan Bigley

5. 24 Ricky Moxley

6. 14 Sam Scott

7. 44 Erik Elsea

 

Legends

1. 00X Darin Cooker

2. 59X Becca Monopoli

3. 14 Brady Marshall

4. 7 Mike Verhaagh

5. 54 Tony Steinbuck

6. 17 Bob Wilson

7. 26 Joey Langis

8. 55 Conrad Molter

 

Super Late Model

1. 23 Michael Smith

2. 97 Patrick Staropoli **fast time**

3. 64 Joe Winchell

4. 28B Dylan Bigley

5. 28D T.J. Duke

6. 5X Steve Gill

7. 84F Danny Foster.

8. 5 Joe Boyd

9. 92 Michael Cenzi

10. 99 Danny Poling

11. 55 Scott Walters

12. 30 Jessee Dutilly

13. 34 Bobby Shelton

14. 7A Amanda Fergerson

15.55R Zachary Rudd

16. 11 David Weaver

17. 28 Billy Bigley Jr.

18. 84 Wayne Anderson

19. 7. Daryl Shellnut

20. 59 Dustin Dunn

21. 27 Cody Lane

22. 17 Eddie King

23. 61 Richie Anderson

24. 89 Jimmy Crowe

25. 14 Stuart Vandevender

 

Late Model Sportsman

1.56 Brandon Morris **MID SEASON CHAMP**

2. 13 Aaron Williamson

3. 67 James Dubose

4. 12 David Williamson

5. 14 John Garrett

6.98 Danny Brown

7. 09 Donnie Ollie Jr.

8. 51 Michael Atwell

9. 7 Kyle Rice

10 Brian Richardsaon DNS

 

Street Stock

1. 80 Richard Nelson

2. 18 Shane Leonard

3. 77 Blane Baer

4. 88 Jimmy Meiser

5. 98 A. J. Mott

6. 2 David Fischer

 

Bobby Fischer **MID SEASON CHAMP**

 

Open Wheel Modified

1. 46 Doug Moff

2. 19 Steve Arnold

3. 1 Roger Blevins

4. 8 Johnny Allen

 

Pro 4

1. 04 Ryan Collver

2. 61 Paul Richards Jr. **MID SEASON CHAMP**

3. 91 Jessica Ostrovskis

4. 05 Ronald Robinson

5. 18 James Daring

6. 00 Dan Collver

7.01 Roy Healey

8. 30 Stephen Babcock DNS

 

Road Warrior

1. 29 Phil Ellis

2.27 Derrick Horton

3. 7 Cody Allen

4. 10X Jason Miller **MID SEASON CHAMP**

5. 1 Rick Reed

6. 80 Richard Nelson

7. 14 Randy Kile

8. 35 Edward Shultz

9. 17 James Stokes

10. 5 Jeremy Daring

11. 97 Chris Scott

12. 33 Chris Loney

13. 31 Brandon Kolz

14. 90 Chris Stockton